This review was initially published without performance and rating but is now updated.

This is a CDMA phone offered with Sprint

Introduction:

The LG Rumor has been a wildly popular phone for Sprint, and when we reviewed it last year we liked what we saw overall. However, it had some glaring omissions and was rightfully pigeonholed as a teenager’s phone. Unlike its V-themed big brothers on Verizon, the Rumor was simply a low end phone with a QWERTY keyboard. That one defining feature sure was popular though, and until now nobody has stepped up and made a feature QWERTY dumbphone. Enter Samsung, who has taken the side-slide form-factor to the next level with the Rant. On paper it delivers everything the Rumor was lacking, most notably 3G but also a higher resolution camera, Sprint TV and a four row keyboard. Will the Rant hit the sweet spot that the Rumor missed?

Included in the box you will find:

Li-ion battery

AC adapter

256 MicroSD card

USB data cable

Fashion design battery door

Design:

The Rant is very similar in design to the Rumor, with a large display atop a traditional keypad and a side-slide QWERTY keyboard. It is noticeably different in the hand though, as the Rant weighs .8oz more and is a bit larger overall.

The 2.1” display is unfortunately only 176x220 pixels, not QVGA, but it is 262K colors and as usual the Samsung panel looks wonderful. We had no issues using the phone in direct sunlight. Just above is the earpiece, and to the left of that a small status LED. Below it is an oval cluster of keys, including the five-way directional pad, right and left softkeys, speakerphone, back as well as send and end. The d-pad, speakerphone and back keys are raised, whereas the soft and phone keys are flush with the display, though not seamlessly so. Below that is a traditional dialpad, with raised hard plastic keys. The keys are all a bit small and cramped, but the combination of raised and flush on the cluster make them easy enough to use, and all but the largest fingers shouldn’t have trouble navigating the keypad. To the left of the display are two soft keys for use when the phone is slid open.

The keyboardslides out to the left, opposite of the Rumor. It features four rows of keys, not three, which affords the Rant room for more, larger keys. The top three are laid out in the traditional QWERTY format, with an end/back key at the end of the second row. The third row starts with a function key and ends with arrow up and ok. The bottom row is free for the space bar, remaining directional arrows, and other punctuation and shortcut keys. Unlike LG’s four row QWERTY phones for Verizon, the Rant does not have a separate row for numbers, instead accessing them as a function option. We prefer Samsung’s layout, as it is truer to a real keyboard and allows for more keys.

We were able to type on it fast and accurately, but we constantly found ourselves checking for mistakes. We weren’t making them, but something about the feel of the keys gave us that impression. The keys themselves are rubbery and flat with very shallow travel, and need to be pressed a bit harder than normal. It works- well actually- but the feel is just a bit off. We’d imagine that with more time and once the keypad is broken in it will feel better.

The back of the phone is entirely covered by the battery door, and the user has two options. A flat, soft touch back is installed but the Rant also ships with another door that has a fashion design on it. We have the black version, so we’re not sure if the pattern is the same on the red and Best Buy exclusive purple versions. There is a tiny 2 megapixel camera and self shot mirror, and next to that is the speaker cutout.

The left side of the phone has a covered 2.5mm headphone jack and silver volume rocker. On the right is a covered microUSB charging/data port and towards the bottom a silver camera shortcut key; on the top corner is a lanyard loop. The microSD slot is near the bottom on the right side, though the battery door has to be removed to access it. At least it’s not under the battery.

Left side

Right side

The Rant has a unique feel in the hand, definitely much more solid than the Rumor. The slide has a better feel, offering both more resistance but better spring when engaged. Though both are a chunky 18mm thick, the Rant feels thicker due to the noticeable weight difference. That it is taller and wider allows the keyboard to be bigger, a worthy trade off. Overall the best word we can use to describe the Rant is “solid,” though the bigger size and increased weight may be a turn off for some.

2. (unregistered)

amen... im getting tired of exchanging chargers and phones for customers because lg makes inferior phones... and another benefit is that samsung jumped ship from its proprietary charger and finally moved in with the micro usb (also found on the new samsungs... m220 and 320, as well as the high note)... i actually got to handle and use the phone... youtube isnt the greatest, as the speaker can be decent to horrible, depending on the clip's audio quality... camera is top notch... tv isnt bad, again, i feel the speaker is the one area that they overlooked... but all in all, a SOLID phone, and by that i do mean SOLID... it feels like a phone, unlike the rumor which feels like a toy... and the one click is the most revolutionary interface to hit dumbphones... the store demo wasnt able to add tiles for some reason (first batch, buggy software perhaps?)... but the ui is super easy to use...

5. (unregistered)

I have the rumor and was told i had to replace the chargers when they break and its less than 6mos can anyone help me and what would i have to do to get the Rant and return the Rumor
Please send me a email @ gogo919@aol.com

7. (unregistered)

ILL TELL YOU A WAY TO GET A NEW PHONE WITH REBATES...OFF EVEN IF YOUR A EXISTING CUSTOMER.....HERES WHAT YOU DO YOU PORT YOUR NUMBER TO VERIZON.....RIGHT AWAY SPRINT IS GONNA CHARGE YOU A EARLY TERMINATION FEE...BUT WAIT YOU GET A FREE PHONE FROM VERIZON.......YOU KNOW VERIZON HAS THAT 30 DAYS IF YOUR NOT SATISFIED POLICY THAT THEY PAY FOR EVERYTHING.....SO WAIT 15 DAYS WITH VERIZON...THEN CALL SPRINT AND TELL THEM YOU WANNA GET BACK WITH THEM THEY WILL WAIVE ALL THE TERMINATION FEES AND GIVE YOU THE WORLD....THEY WILL GIVE YOU ANY PHONE AT THE SAME PRICE AS IF YOU JUST STARTED WITH SPRINT........AND WAIVE ALL THE FEES FROM THE LAST TIME.....

11. (unregistered)

8.iBear (unregistered)

Got the Rant this morning...it's out.
An excellent phone so far. Still testing features, but the biggest complaint so far is that lots of the app software is not yet available. I expect that to be fixed soon.
Feels very solid and looks like top-notch construction. It's also smaller than the impression I got from the photos/visualizations. QWERTY keyboard is awesome, and ringers are much louder and clearer than the other Sprint phones I've had/seen. (Instinct, Katana LX, Samsung M320) All in all, this is an excellent phone, and I would highly recommend it to any texters.

10. (unregistered)

12. (unregistered)

i want this phone, BAD!!!!! i have the samsung m300 right now and its alrite, i guess but its a free phone, terrible battery life, texting is somewhat slow, and i want to upgrade! always get a samsung because, i cant count how many times ive dropped my m300 and it survived a soak in the pool. solid phones, they even have my name in them :)

13.klein (unregistered)

I just got the Rant last night. The purple one. I love the way it looks. I love the texting. It is a little bit chunky, but not too bad as my previous phone was the A-900 and this one is almost the same size.
But, the Network is terrible! Supposedly this is 3G EVDO, but I swear my A-900 was much faster. This one tends to hang for several seconds to a couple minutes and sometimes you must abort and try again. Also, the applications out there are not made for this phone yet. I have 29 more days to decide. I hate to give up the beauty of the purple model, but I may have to sacrifice aesthetic for function and revert back at least for a few months until more guinea pigs get to test it out.

15.bob the builder (unregistered)

16.NancyBee (unregistered)

I've had the Rant for about a few weeks now to replace the Samsung M500 (fantastic little phone). The one thing that makes me laugh every time I get a call? I get a voice announcement of who is calling! It's like a secretary comes with it! "Call from Maria" - LOL. Anyway, I have found nothing to complain about. Granted I loved the size of the M500 and this is heavier than I would like. I was going to get the Instinct but am glad I didn't because I think the dragging would get old. Everything is easy to use on this phone. The audible GPS is the reason I bought this and I love that. I find I text all the time now (not when I'm driving) and it's sooooo easy. The Rant? Love it!!

21. (unregistered)

22. (unregistered)

FYI - We just got 3 Rants and within one week, two have failed. They fail loading the software and then the screen goes blank gray and blinks in different brightness levels with no data displayed. Nothing Sprint can do but replace them. I suspect it is a flaw in the firmware. Once again a manufacturer is using the end consumer to do their testing and quality control. I wish they would test these things thoroughly before giving them to us. Another note, when using the MP3 player, it cuts in and out loading the songs to play when it starts the song. So the beginning of every song is messed up. Not the end of the world, but then again, shouldn't do it. And our observed battery life is less than a days use if you have anything (options) turned on. So the advertised 5 plus hours of talk time is only if you use it as a basic phone which kind of isn't why you would buy this phone. A bit misleading in my opinion. If it didn't have these problems, I would give it a solid thumbs up as we like the phone in general.

23. (unregistered)

24.Dulcinea (unregistered)

Well I got my Rant and then went online and read the horrible reviews it got. I was nervous! I keep waiting for something to happen that is bad. The only technical problem that I have with my phone is that the bubbles that you can choose for the main screen, my choice- Horascope and weather, will not update. I am willing to live with this flaw seeing as I love the keyboard.(Rumor spoiled me).
I have to say on another positive note, I have a bad habit with water and phones, I was getting into my Jeep and went to put my seatbelt on and my phone fell into my TALL glass of water( now this was a day short of a week of me having my new toy) I fished it out shaking it spraying water all over the front of the car. I took the battery out first thing and stuck the phone(opened) and battery up in the window of my car with the defrost on full blast trying to dry it out. Drove to work and stuck it on top of the heater. 3 hrs later one of the girls went in and put it back together and turned it on and called her own phone, IT WORKED!!!! It had a funny spot on the screen for a couple days but that went away. I am not saying go out and drop your phone in water but for those of us that are accident prone this is a godsend! Hope this helps. Oh, and the reason I replaced my Rumor was because it fell it the toilet and got flushed, lol

25. (unregistered)

i got the rant on november 12, 2008 and yesterday, december 9, 2008 i was in the middle of texting and the screen just went blank. so i took the battery out and put it back in and it showed the loading animation and then flashed a blank screen. as you can imagine, i'm very po'd at the moment. i have't even had the phone a month and it is broken. never even dropped the phone. it also has many flaws that it shouldn't have. for example, you cant have a banner on your homepage, you cant zoom in on the camera, and the screen sometimes freezes when you go to slide it open. another thing, if you want to send media, it sometimes doesnt work if your texting while it sends.
i hate samsung phones!

I had this phone from February of 2009 until April of 2011... switched to T-Mobile and got the Motorola Cliq 2.

I CAN HONESTLY SAY THAT I MISS THE RANT.

It was such a dependable phone! My older cousin accidentally knocked me into my pool (while the phone was in my hand) in June 2009 and the phone kept working as if the incident had never happened! My friend's Rant got ran over and the phone's screen was terribly messed up, but the phone had an option where you could hear what letters & words you would be typing in, and it kept functioning for her until the replacement came in.

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